I'll be transparent as to why I paid. And I only speak for me, not any other Sync user. Sync has been the app I used the most in the past decade. Sync has been what I - personally and subjectively - found to be my ideal android app experience, above all other apps. The majority of the time my phone is on is with Sync open. And this was all for free, for nearly a decade.

Reddit has taken that away from me. And the reason I'm willing to pay is to compensate the Sync dev for the value he has personally given me. While I believe in FOSS, I believe more in the principle of fair trade. And I have judged that, in my specific circumstance, he has given me more in value over the past 10 years than the price he currently asks for. And again, I only speak for myself.

And yes, the source of information comes from the serving platform (whether that's Reddit or Lemmy instances). I would have been willing to pay for a Reddit API key if that meant being able to keep Sync. But they don't offer it. And once I am able to migrate my profile to a different instance, I plan on donating to that instance if they take donations.

I've done the same with any service that has given me value, including Wikipedia. Again, this is based on fair trade and value.